Animal Activists Stage Gas Chamber Protest Outside Uxbridge Pork Giant’s HQ

Protestors from Viva!, the UK's leading vegan campaigning charity, highlighted a stark animal cruelty issue on the streets of Uxbridge on Saturday, staging two powerful demonstrations against Pilgrim’s Europe – one of Britain's biggest pork producers – in the company’s own hometown.

Activists gathered right outside Pilgrim’s Europe’s UK headquarters at Belmont House, on Belmont Road, cordoning off a small area representing a typical CO2 gas chamber used to stun pigs before slaughter. Inside the cordon, silent protesters stood wearing gas masks, while distressing audio recorded inside a CO2 slaughterhouse played through speakers, filling the air with the screams, squeals and gasps pigs make during the gassing process.

Public Demonstrations and Bus Campaign

The group then proceeded to Uxbridge Bus Station on Bakers Road, bringing its protest into the heart of the town centre for a quieter, sombre moment without the gas chamber audio. Across the two events, the public was confronted with both the undeniable suffering of pigs during gassing and the ultimate outcome of all forms of slaughter – sentient individuals, silenced forever.

The protest coincided with Viva!’s bus advertising campaign on pig gassing, which has been running on TfL buses serving Uxbridge, putting the message in front of commuters and pedestrians across the town throughout the weekend. Buses bearing a picture of a pig and the message Next stop, the gas chamber were seen picking up and dropping off passengers, many of whom appeared shocked by Viva!'s prominent advert and to-the-point wording.

Scrutiny Over Abattoir Expansion Plans

Pilgrim’s Europe slaughters more than two million pigs a year using CO2 gas stunning. A growing body of scientific evidence, including a 2025 report by DEFRA’s independent Animal Welfare Committee (AWC), shows that gassing is highly aversive, causing the animals significant pain, panic and distress in the moments before death. Harrowing slaughterhouse footage shows pigs gasping for air, squealing and thrashing around as the gas forms an acidic layer on their eyes, nostrils, mouths and lungs, making them feel as though they are burning them from the inside out. Despite this, Pilgrim’s Europe has applied for permission to slaughter an additional 6,000 pigs each week at its Westerleigh abattoir near Bristol, where Viva! is based.

If permission is granted, Pilgrim’s would begin CO2 gassing a total of 25,000 pigs a week, up from 19,000, at just this single location. Yearly, it means 1.3 million pigs would be slaughtered at Westerleigh.

Throughout the day, campaigners invited Uxbridge residents to pose for photos with posters expressing their support for ending pig gassing. The group will now create an eye-catching collage that shows Pilgrim’s Europe how many people want the practice to end, adding to the backlash the producer is currently facing over its abattoir expansion plans.

The demonstration is part of Viva!’s ongoing Gasping for Life campaign, which is calling for a ban on CO2 gas stunning of pigs across the UK.

Craig Thorpe, a campaigner at Viva! and the organiser of the protest, says: “Every year, millions of pigs in this country are forced into chambers filled with CO2 gas. It’s an unbearably, unjustifiably cruel slaughter method that guarantees the final moments of a pig’s life are filled with nothing but suffering and fear. Pilgrim’s Europe is one of the biggest companies responsible for this serious welfare issue, and on Saturday we brought that reality to its own doorstep in Uxbridge. We want the public, and the company, to face up to what's happening behind closed doors and end CO2 gassing for good.”

Viva! advocates for the adoption of vegan lifestyles and balanced, healthy and sustainable plant-based diets. Information about plant-based alternatives to pork and other animal products can be found on Viva!’s website.